The Debacle Continues
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This is the era of connectivity. People with Crackberrys answering email and communicating in every imaginable place and time. I heard an interview with former US President Bush Sr. that he has his Blackberry at the Texas Rangers games and answers emails during the game. We even have a conference devoted to wireless connectivity.
And in case you're not available, or just don't want to answer the phone, we have voice mail, answering machines, paging capabilities, etc. And even the low tech, older stores, factories, even some offices, have a public address system for paging.
So why can't I get a manager at a Sears store?
The debacle with my return frustrations at Sears continues. I've been checking my credit card for a return charge for two weeks. I've called the store 4 or 5 times last week, unable to get anyone in the office to answer. My calls usually go like this:
(recorded) "Hello, welcome to Sears.", yadda, yadda, press 2
"Please say the name of the department"
"Hub Office" (that's me and the name of the central office at the store.)
"One minute"
I hear a click, the phone rings twice, a pause, then "Hello, welcome to Sears."
There are some variations, I ask for customer service and then I speak to an Operator that transfers me back to the welcome message. Or I get a department and they send me to HR, which sends me back to the main message. Today I asked an operator for the store manager.
And got transferred to the welcome message.
So I called the national service number on Monday. The guy was nice and said he'd call me back. He didn't (Thanks for that Gil) and I called back today and explained my problems to them. They put me on hold and then came back to tell me they couldn't reach anyone at the store. Couldn't get the manager, no people in the office.
So how, in this extremely connected world where kids in 2nd grade have cell phones can the manager of a major retailer not be reachable during business hours? How can there not be a way to leave a message for them. How can the national customer service group not be able to deal with the brick and mortar stores?
No wonder Sears has declined from the premier US retailer to who knows what. And no wonder why Amazon.com and others are kicking their butt. I even sent a long reasonable letter outlining my issues to their national service email. Actually I sent two because their amazing web form couldn't handle a full page of text. I had to break it up. No surprise there if they can't figure out voice mail or cell phones.
And Sears has just lost a life-long, Craftsman tool buying, customer.
Steve Jones
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Steve, a tip i picked up a while ago that may be worth a try. On many automated phone systems if you repeatedly press 0 or a combination of numbers that are not options (although 0 works best) the automated system will not be able to handle the input and will therefore try and connect you to a human operator.
Its worked for me with companies like Barclaycard and other large companies customer service lines.
Regards
James
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They'll only change when the economics force them to. Quitting being a Sears customer is a good step, but you'll need to get another few million behind you to gain momentum!
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You know its possible that your account has not been updated by your credit card company, and Sears has already reversed the charges. My experience has shown that it is the credit card companies who take their time changing the records (must be running oracle ....) rather than the retailers.
Keep your stick on the ice.
And for shushy... 'anit no trouble with them sears people its dem those 20% interest credit card companies'.
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Steve, this is reflective of the upheaval going on in the retail marketplace. Technology has allowed some competitors to dominate. Wal-Mart is the leading example. Others are suffering trying to keep up and worst of all they all, don't pay their employees what they deserve. I was glad to see your appreciation of the staff's help. Hopefully Sears will iron out those wrinkles because their generous Craftsman Tool return policy earned my loyalty years ago. Best of luck with this.
Peter
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Steve,
I had a similar experience. Three years ago I was doing some shopping in December. Sears had a credit card offer - sign up for a Sears card and take an extra 10% off your purchase. Since my purchase was substantial, I decided to get the card. The cashier spelled my name wrong when she typed it into their system. I saw the spelling error weeks later when I received the card. I decided to see how difficult is would be to get them to correct the mistake. First I tried calling the store where I signed up for the card. I went through their "seven layers of customer deflection" phone system and could not get to speak to a customer service representative. I decided to try their web site. I figured surely there would be a phone number for customer service. I couldn't find one. I spent several hours trying to contact them with no success.
Finally, I did what many other reasonable people would do. I took a pair of scissors and cut the card into little tiny pieces.
I have never been back to Sears since.
After three years you would think that they would have made some improvements but I guess the old saying holds true - "the more things change, the more they stay the same."
Regards, Carl
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Yeah, I agree: don't blame the retailer.
Also might not be the credit card company. Good chance it's the processor who's in the middle.
I personally haven't had problems with KMart/Sears since the merger.
Recently had a roof replaced and put it on MasterCard(get the airmiles).
The roofer tried for 2 months to get their processing company to get the credit card company to take the charge. I finally wrote him a check.
Greg H -
I absolutely hate those 'voice response' systems. Much rather just hit phone buttons. Though if you mumble garbage enough times, you will often get a human.
The charge system is messy and does unexpected things. At a local store my and my wife's debit cards were declined a couple of times, then accepted. A couple days later we checked the bank online and showed debits for even the 'failed' instances. I went back to the store with the printouts and the manager credited the excess charges. A week later I looked at the bank statement and the 'preliminary' charges had simply disappeared, and in conjunction with the manager's refund I had come out ahead. He had treated me fairly so I went back and settled again. Two extra trips for something that would not have happened if the bank didn't do weird things with their accounting.
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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I have also sworn off Sears after a terrible experience with their customer service. I had a repair scheduled one day and the guy never showed and I never received a call to say that he could not make it. I tried calling and calling, but received the same type of runaround with the phone system until I ultimately ended up getting a hold of somebody through the national number. I received no explanation why the repairman never came and was told they could reschedule someone in a couple weeks. I told them not to bother, I was through with Sears for good.
It really is sad too, since I remember that my father used to swear by them when I was growing up, and I was a loyal Craftsman tool purchaser and Sears devotee until these past few years.
Hopefully, someone will realize the importance of good customer service, before they end up losing more good customers.
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I gave up on Sears 15 years ago, EXCEPT, when I lose a Craftsman tool. I'm too anal to put a non-Craftsman socket in the middle of a set.
I wrote to the then-president of Sears with my laundry list of gripes (credit issues among them) and warned of a bleak future. I don't know if they ever improved their inventory control; that was my final gripe. It was no longer worth making the trip, because they were always out of what I wanted.
Even recently, how is the 6-point 10mm socket the one thing they don't have? The peg is there. It's empty.
Trust me, the manager has a customer-contact backlog. Even my letter to their president was redirected to the store manager. To his credit, he did call. But then he remembered me. To his credit, he didn't hang up. I do appreciate a front-line employee who can take the heat of a disgruntled customer.
Sears' problem is cultural and infects every system. I don't think an ailing K-Mart can help an ailing Sears. If you watch K-Mart, they will continue to sell off a lot of Sears' assets. If an organization wants to be successful long-term, it needs to attract customers. And then it needs to keep them.
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I've had problems with my orders there myself, but I'd hate to swear them off. When I shop there, I buy what's on the shelf and I don't order anything anymore from catalog or internet. I've inherited Craftsman tools from my grandfather and father and I buy them because they stand up to abuse, work well and I know my son will inherit them eventually.
I hate to see a few bad business decisions ruin a legacy.
- those that don't at least make some effore to keep up are going to fade away. I've had similar experiences with several companies.I try to do everything online and it almost always works out better. It was getting to where my bank was about to charge me just to walk in the door. they had charges for everything, one time I was asking questions and the guy kept trying to add 2 charges, I was asking if I was being charged for the effort of them making the charge. Went to FirstIB.com for my banking and have been ecstatic with their sevice and best of all, have not stood (or sat in my car) in a bank line for almost 6 years. I also use Discover card for anywhere that accepts it. if there's a charge I disagree with, they remove it until the creditor proves the charge. Maybe that's why some places don't take them (along with their higher fees for companies), but if I go somewhere and they don't take it, I usually find somewhere else to buy what I want (with the exception of this little mexican restaurant I can't live without).Also, here's a list a friend sent me on how to get through some of these automated systems. I haven't used any of them yet, so I don't know if they work or not: http://www.paulenglish.com/ivr/dl
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As an example of how negative experiences block out positive ones, I should point out one thing that Sears is better at than any other. On-line replacement parts.
Pick an item, any item that you could possibly have purchased at Sears. You will typically find the manuals, parts diagram, and you can order parts on-line, of course.
I actually bought a typewriter ribbon from them. I was stunned. (You're probably stunned I have a typewriter!)
Given my disdain for them over these years, this is a strength that I hope they recognize and maintain.
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Through all of this, Steve, I can't help but wonder why you haven't simply disputed the charge with your credit card company. It must be your latent martyr complex.
You've made more than a reasonable effort, and if you've documented yourself well, then the credit card company should have no problem with the chargeback to Sears. I've disputed charges with just about every card from Discover to Diners and everything by Citibank, and they've all been easy to deal with. I lost a couple disputes, but I've won most of them over the decades...
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Brick and mortar stores and their tech systems are designed to deliver product to the store and sell what's on the shelf. Systems usually aren't designed to track individual SKU's and related cash/credit transactions unless you have several billion of excess cash flow you can put into systems development like WalMart.
I used to work for a major retailer that put several hundred million dollars into developing world class delivery/item tracking/sales/front end/customer service systems. The development costs caused profits to fall, which caused the stock price to drop, which resulted in a buyout by another major retailer. All the development work was canned because it didn't mesh with the buyer's legacy systems. So I can see why the brick and mortar dinosaurs hesitate to try matching the systems the Amazon crowd have developed. It's a little late in the game to be asking for seed capital.
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